Friday Top 5: Playground Implements

We are monkeys, and if you need proof, go watch some kids at a playground.

5) Anything Tall

Of course, being tall, there has to be a way to get up to the top, so in order to be fun, it requires a myriad of steps and hand-holds. Hopefully the top of it is not too slippery or dangerous, though if it is it won't stop too many folks. The vantage point is always better from the top.

4) Slide-y Horizontal Handle Thing

Yes, that's the technical name. The first time that I was presented with one of these, I was awe-struck. Who-ever dreamed up this idea needs to be given a lifetime supply of chocolate, or happiness, whichever you think is better (I tend to think they're interchangeable).

3) Horizontal Tire Swing

More vertigo that one would initially expect, with the right "pusher." You can get some really gut-wrenching spins out of these things if they are installed right, with enough space around them. Physics, baby.

2) Spring-loaded Bouncy Seat

You know, the motorcycle or horse on a spring that bounces around and back and forth. It tends to be more fun when you are clearly too large for it, since the thing keels over like a sailboat in a hurricane. I think that I have broken a couple of these... though I can't remember exactly.

1) Swings

As if the swings wouldn't be first.

• Swinging
• Swing-Racing (seeing who gets to the high-point first)
• Swing Jumping
• Stand Swinging
• Belly Swinging
• Swing-Spinning
• ETC.
  

Labels: top 5

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Clarifications

I've gotten a few questions about religion recently, and I though that I'd clear up my stance on the subject.

I'm an avowed atheist. If you have been around me for more than a few weeks you probably have an inkling of this aspect of my life. However, this should not suggest that I hate religion. I find many aspects of religion distasteful, and some aspects of the evangelical movement outright offensive, but I am not out to wipe religion off the face of the earth.

There seem to be two camps of atheists gaining a following around the world. There are the mainstream "live and let live" atheists, who are fine with most religion but keep it at an arm's length, and the militant atheists, who are out to destroy religion from the base. I'm not about to group with one set of folks or the other, but I think that I sit somewhere closer to the live and let live atheists and agnostics that make up the much larger and less vocal majority of disbelievers.

I am perfectly fine with religion, and am willing to recognize its benefits, as long as people have some decency about it, meaning:

• Please don't try to convert me. I enjoy religious debate, and absolutely relish intelligent argument on sensitive subjects such as god, but be respectful of my beliefs, and don't try to "show me the light."


• Please keep your religion out of our government. The separation of church and state has vast implications, and this is not a theocracy. Don't advocate legislating the Bible, we're not all christians.


• Please take your ignorant hate elsewhere. If you hate people due to dogmatic and unfounded fears and prejudices, keep it to yourself, or else I'll hate you right back.

With all that said, I don't think that I've ever actually met someone who meets those criteria, so I don't think that there's much to worry about, but there seemed to be some need for clarification, so I obliged.

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Hot Fuzz!

I enjoy a good movie, like most folk, but I hate paying anything over 7 dollars to see one. I paid 8.50 (well, Vicki did) to see Hot Fuzz, and it was more than worth it. Perhaps it was that fact that I was presented with a little old man playing a full-size organ up on the stage when we walked into the theater (as you can see in the image), or perhaps I was just really in need of a good comedy, but this movie really delivered.

I'm willing to call it the best film that I've seen since I <3 Huckabees. See it, if you haven't, no matter the cost.

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Friday Top 5: Jazz Musicians/Bands

Pretty much self explanatory. Play the audio files for some examples of these folks' work.

5) Amon Tobin

Amon Tobin is an electronic artist first and foremost. The vast majority of his music sounds more like Aphex Twin than it does Miles Davis, but there are some very strong Jazz undercurrents in every track that make themselves very apparent at times.

4) Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck is usually thought of as a distant second to Miles Davis, since Miles is is the very mainstream version of good Jazz, and as such, many people consider him to be the grand-master. I tend to take a different viewpoint, however, Dave Brubeck was there for many of Miles Davis's major hits, and he has a instantly recognizable style that I feel sets him far apart from the rest of the pack.

3) Charles Mingus

Mingus is to Jazz what Rammstein is to Electronica. He is gritty, low, and guttural. I absolutely love it.

2) John Coltrane

Coltrane is considered by many to be the premier innovator in modern Jazz, and he has influenced the entire realm of postmodern Jazz groups in a very meaningful way. Experimenting with 'atonal' Jazz, he got a lot of bad press, as people found his later music hard to follow. Despite this, he is considered to be 'the man' of avant-garde Jazz. I like him because of exactly this, and because he influenced my #1 band to a large extent.

1) The Bad Plus

The Bad Plus is a trio of young white guys that likes to do cover songs. They are utterly fantastic. The songs that they perform are anything but copies, and even in a song that you know by heart, it can be difficult to pick out more than a couple of melodies from a Bad Plus cover. New, yes, but great, and very deserving of the #1 slot.

Labels: top 5

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Spam Poetry

I can't get enough of this stuff! You know, the body text of spam and virus-filled emails that we all get. I think I'm going to start collecting it.


Title: "Upgrade or OEM"

Everywhere, utterly.
This third day of our January thaw,
I. Arctic Scenery
At the white place of the road's vanishing
Seems reflected in the infinite of the lamps.
The earth beneath his feet, in its dark cape,
Suddenly, in a savage, dreadful bend,
there's a pulpy orange-y smell from juice factories....
Mère and Père Chose are walking away from the
That neither the motionless farm couple trudging
That open before me? What I see
demonstrating their talent for comedy—stroke
the foul pole relaxes. She's raged all afternoon
The purest form is always the one
Only a fox whose den I cannot find.
Dreaming time has reversed, I watch drowned snow
He never even dreams, being sheer snow;
The ordinary, wide scene which begins
XV. The International Circumpolar Stations: The Greely Expedition

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Forsooth

Yea and thus another dichotomy of Fridays have passed with nothing to show for their merry arrival save a dusty and blank stare. The inaccessibility of one's computing software and infrastructure, coupled with the accessibility of many an hour of completely free time generates a cocktail of relaxation and malfeasance.

I contemplated this prophetic situation, as is usually the case, and have come upon the conclusion that you three brave souls that read these pages are merciful enough or sloth enough to let it slide, one more time.

I thank thee, and bid thee adieu.

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Homerun, Dawkins.

To many atheists and agnostics like myself, Richard Dawkins is something of a hero. He has become the unofficial world spokesperson for religious disbelief, and has gained a reputation for being something of a shark. I think it's great. Here's some footage of him in top form on his home turf, fielding some particularly pointed questions extremely well.

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Adios 'Stinner

My parent's dog Winston had to be put down earlier today, a slew of health issues had culminated in a serious problem that had no foreseeable solution for such an old dog. 'Stin was kind of stupid, and acted more like a cat than a dog, but he was affectionate and cuddly, and he's been there for most of my young life.

He was a good boy, and he will be missed.

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